CHAPTER XIX 

 COLOR AND PATTERN IN ANIMALS 



In spite of the fluency with which so many people talk of the 

 meaning of color in organisms, the subject is as incomplete on the 

 theoretical as on the physiological side. . . . The two deficiencies are 

 related and a little more j^hysiology will arm the theorists with better 

 weapons. — Newbigin. 



A CONSPICUOUS characteristic of the animal body is its color 

 pattern. Not all kinds of animals attract our attention by 

 their colors : there are even whole groups whose uniform mono- 

 chrome color scheme is of a sort to relieve them completely 

 from any imputation of flaunting showiness or of bizarre fancies 

 in personal decoration. But consider such a class as the insects : 

 the painted butterflies, the burnished beetles, the flashing 

 dragon flies, the green katydids and brown locusts All attract 

 attention first by the variety or intensity of their colors and 

 the arrangement of these colors in simple or intricate symmetry 

 of pattern. Even the small and at casual glance, obscure and 

 monochrome insects often reveal, on careful examination," a 

 large degree of color development and ofttimes amazing in- 

 tricac}^ and beauty of pattern. So uniformly developed is 

 color pattern among insects, that no thoughtful collector or 

 observer of these animals escapes the self-put question: Why 

 is there such a high degree of specialization of color throughout 

 the insect class? If he be an observer w^ho has taken seriouslv 

 the teachings of Darwin and the utilitarian school of naturalists, 

 his question becomes couched in this form: What is the use to 

 the insects of all this color and pattern? 



For the attitude of any modern student of Nature, con- 

 fronted by such a phenomenon, is that of the seeker for the 

 significance of the phenomenon. And the key to significance 



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